Keeping up with the Jameses

Rick quite rightly gave me a “write-or-the-blog-dies” ultimatum during a recent chat, so I thought I had best post some content on this darn thing before he recycles it into some new format.

The purpose of this blog is to let friends drop a line to the James Family and to provide our globetrotting friends with a one-stop place to drop by for news about friends and family or any other bits of information that folks might think Claudette and Rick and the kids would want to know. It is not surprising that it is hard to keep in touch with majro world events when you are travelling through third world countries.

For example, the Jameses contacted me on Skype yesterday and we had a great talk. They were taking advantage of the wireless internet connection they had at their hotel in Kovalam, India and I was home having a sick day, so we spent an hour talking about the latest events. Incredibly, they were unaware that the world economy is going in the tank and that we are headed inexorably towards a recession. But i really shouldn’t have been surprised that they didn’t know about it. Here in Canada, we are all blasted by the news media everyday, but when you are travelling, you have to work to stay informed. Think of how out-of-touch you feel when you’ve had a two-week vacation. Now multiply that by 10 and you have some indication of how isolated from the news the Jameses can get depending on which countries they are in.

So, this blog will not only serve as a place to write to Claudette and Rick and the kids, it is also a place to help them stay in touch with things their friends and family think are important or to post items that the Jameses might find of interest.

Having said that, I am going to provide them with a few links to bring them back to 21st century Canada.

For some scary economic news closer to home, here is a tidbit on the $135 million cutbacks coming from the NWT government.

Here is a great link to the Tanzania Tourist Board’s offical website. Lots of information and a very sophisticated site. (Side note: The Jameses had been planning to go to Kenya as a major part of their swing through Africa, but given the recent political unrest there, they have chosen to switch venues to Tanzania. Speaking on behalf of their concerned friends, we couldn’t be more relieved at their prudence!)

3 Responses to “Keeping up with the Jameses”

Wow! Great start Tim, Thanks! We hadn’t actually found that particular Tanzania link yet either. Now we just gotta get everyone to contribute all the latest family & friends news, and life will be grand.